ITALY
Reporters With Borders

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) fully supports Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who has cited his free speech rights as grounds for refusing to be interrogated by the Vatican judicial system as part of an investigation into the leaking of confidential documents.

Suspected of complicity in the leak, Nuzzi is one of two Italian journalists placed under investigation by the Vatican in connection with their books exposing Vatican mismanagement.

Nuzzi announced his refusal to appear for questioning in his blog yesterday. “In the Vatican, there is no impunity provision for those who exercise a right, as there is in Italy,” he wrote. “The possibility of freely expressing one’s thoughts is not recognized (…) The person who reveals information is liable to be punished.”

“By writing ‘Avarizia’ and ‘Via Crucis,’ Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi just exercised their right to provide information in the public interest…